openal.org down? Permanently?
openal.org down? Permanently?
- Subject: openal.org down? Permanently?
- From: Janie Clayton-Hasz <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 15:21:04 -0500
Did some digging into OpenAL and what the hell is going on with it.
It looks like it began as an open source project. It was embraced, extended, and taken over by a company called Creative Labs back about five years ago. Their last update on OpenAL was version 2.1. OpenAL is now a proprietary technology owned by Creative Labs.
For some reason a few years ago they stopped doing any work on it and they have killed it off. They cut off all links to developers using it and stopped updating
openal.org. It is still owned by Creative so no one can go in and purchase the domain, but it looks very much like what happens when a large company buys a patent for something that they want to sit on to prevent anyone else from implementing it.
I don't know enough about any of this stuff to know what happens from here. There is an OpenAL framework through Apple so just because these people aren't supporting it anymore doesn't mean that the Apple framework won't still work. I don't know if someone would need to create something else or if this framework could be reopened to the open source community or if it is just going to disappear off the face of the earth.
Also, did slightly more digging and there is a different industry standard: FMOD.
This is not open source. It is owned by Firelight Technologies, but it is still being supported and maintained. It is multi-platform and there is a programmer API that is free to mess around with but they ask that you pay them a license fee if you plan to make money off it:
There seems to be a flourishing developer community in gaming forums, so that is one place to look if one were inclined to do 3D audio programming. I think it is just a bunch of C and C++, so you drag, drop, and include it in your project.
Hope that was useful to anyone wanting to delve into 3D audio!
--
If you give someone a program, you will frustrate them for a day; if you teach them how to program, you will frustrate them for a lifetime.
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